My Fantasy RPG World, Feedback and Ideas appreciated

I am opting to using mostly Arabic and African names for East Colassia.

I NEVER overthink anything. By the way here is an article on Scarterran use of chopsticks that I tangentially felt like writing while working on an article on Scarterran feasts and Scarterran everyday meals.

Well you need to read more of my articles because you should know that not-gnolls are a distinctly an East Colassian creature.

(Though I suppose gnolls used to be in West Colassia, but they were driven extinct because everyone hates them and visa versa.)

I think I'm going to go with Dabesh, plural Dabeshi, because it fits well with the Mereshnari humans they clash swords with.

Interestingly you suggest "Grroan". They actually speak the language of Grauen, a language Greymoria teaches to most of the races she creates. In most cases, Greymoria's monstrous children abandon Grauen as they develop or they are exterminated.

Not-gnolls have managed to not evolve and not get wiped out.

 

Good point, while I was going through some articles to replace mentions of gnolls with Dabeshi, I did take one of the quotations from a Dabesh hating character and called them "cackling curs".

I'm pretty sure I got most of the references to gnolls but I'm sure missed one or two.

Almost a decade ago, the goddess Nami was the goddess Phyra and I was blown away when I found an article with "Phyra" in it a year ago.

I didn't change it to avoid legal issues, I changed it because I liked Nami better and Phyra was easy to get confused with Phidas.

EDIT: While fixing old mentions of the hyena men to dabeshi, I saw I need to correct Aranea. They are now Arachpliza. A combination of Greek words for "spider" and "stalker". I used Greek because of the Ancient Greek story of Arachne.

"Delvers" is actually "delvers" in Latin. Who knew? I like the norwegian translate of dig to "grave". I'm going to rename them Gravroks (grov-roks) because I like the guttural sound of it, and it has "rock" in it it. Gravroks are primitive but they are actually pretty peaceful most of the time. They eat metal ore and they really like refined metal. A few get addicted to refined metal and will attack people to steal their metal. Note that Gravroks don't have discriminating palates. Iron ingots taste just as good to them as gold bullion so bribing them is not expensive if you are prepared.

 

It was my intent to make it guttural and vaguely Klingon-sounding. So I succeeded.

I thought I fixed the delvers article. I knew I probably didn't find them all, but I am embarrassed them in the delvers article.


Metaphorically, the vegetables in my fridge is my glossary which is nearly always six months behind the rest of my wiki.

Taco Bell would be writing that have nothing to do with my RPG campaigns (I have TWO now!) and my WIP fiction pieces. Example, my aforementioned chopsticks article.

Perhaps it is time I edited the glossary again.

My plan was to make the glossary Plan C. Plan A was to use the table of contents, Plan B is to use the search feature. If you have any ideas on how to make the Table of Contents more user friendly, let me know.

I have one, a Microsoft Word document with a detailed navigation pane, I called it the "Creature Compendium" and I use it for running games. The Creature Compendium is very mechanics focused. It's got lots of stat lines but not much fluff, that's what World Anvil is for. The Creature Compendium also has my half-formed ideas and MAYBE Monsters. The stats also change as a result of play testing.

That said, there are more than a few creatures on Scarterra's wiki that are not in my Creature Compendium and visa versa. Hypothetically, if I marketed my RPG setting I could easily put together a Monster Manual, and I suppose your suggestion of using the Purple Cow in the name is a good idea.

The hard part would be getting illustrations for it all. I shopped around, Diana Rahfoth's rates are fairly standard. About $300 an illustration, and about $150 each for commercial use. Just about every artist I've seen of similar quality on DeviantArt charges roughly the same amount. I suppose hypothetically if I said "Wanna illustrate a book for me?" I could probably negotiate a cheaper rate per illustration.

Also, black and white sketches are cheaper, but I like color. Right now I'm using commissioned illustrations as a personal carrot. As long as I make progress towards building up a world of fiction, I will spend discretionary income on beautiful illustrations.

I think it would be easier to monetize fiction and then hopefully when I have a fan base, then make a spinoff RPG. I would have zero compunctions about reversing the order, creating a popular RPG and using that to sell fiction though. Either way would make me happy.

Hasbro is killing the goose that laid the golden egg, so there is a fast increasing demand for not-D&D RPGs, I doubt I'm as of yet positioned to capitalize on this right now. Scarterra d10 is but a drop in an ocean of homebrew RPGs. Though, biased as I am, I'm in the top 90th percentile of homebrew RPGs for game systems for detail and playtesting, and 99th percentile for fluff, this is an industry where only a tiny tiny amount of ventures succeed.

I don't why, but while me and my group of friends enjoyed D&D 2nd ed and 3rd ed well enough, we really were fond of White Wolf's d10 system (though we never got into the dark angsty aspects of White Wolf's fluff), and my player group understands d10 mechanics like riding a bike.

I suppose if I want to test how wide the appeal of Scarterra d10 is, I would need to find a group of players who have not played a White Wolf game and see if they can learn to love Scarterra d10.

For this contingency, I have created an article titled Unspoken Rules of the Scarterra D10 system. And of course all the actual rules are in the table of Contents tab "RPG Rules"

Though I am vain enough and financially well-off enough that I don't need Scarterra to make money, I just need Scarterra to not lose money. Hypothetically if I was selling hundreds or thousands of Scarterra books while barely breaking even, I would be happy and consider it a very rewarding hobby and great achievement.

 

As of now, there are 1535 articles. I'm not putting them all on one glossary. Granted hundreds of these are character articles under 100 words each.

I never intended to put EVERYTHING on the glossary. I deliberately left out characters, places. I deliberately left out articles on things that are mostly similar to the real world in core concept, Scarterran piracy, Scarterran merchants, Scarterran chopsticks, etc. I deliberately left out RPG mechanics.

It was and is my intention to include every mortal race and every creature that does not exist in the real world.

It was and is my intention to include every time I invent a new word.

I'm on the fence whether I want to include locations.

I will try to plug some holes in the glossary this afternoon.

EDIT: I suppose I could make a sub glossary for mortal races, or creatures, or any category I suppose.

 

My mind has drifted to Scarterran art.

In my dream the impossible dream I would like to get the rights to use something similar to this crossed with this. On all articles relating to the First Age.

In other words a fantastical city full of dragons. But that would probably cost me two grand.

Then I would like that same cityscape being simultaneously hit by an earthquake, derecho, wildfire, and flood to use as my backdrop for the First Unmaking, another two grand.

Also, I would then do the same thing for the Second Age, showing a magnificent cityscape full of elves and then show the cityscape ravaged by a horde of Void Demons. I don't have four grand for this.

I would like to eventually spend $300/piece for three pictures of one Void Demon, just to show what Void demon grunts, Winter Demons, and Death Demons actually look like. These aren't the only demons I have, but these are the three that adventurers are most likely to fight. But that will not happen soon.

I would like to spruce up my website with some cost effective custom decoration.

A while ago, I described a desire to make a Westhammer logo of a hammer in front of a tin sheriff's star and @Just A Skink made this.


And then I, colored it with Microsoft Paint to the best of my meager ability.

'


I wasn't particularly happy with the dirty orange background version though.

Then I asked @Paul1748 nicely and he made this.



Why did I bring this up? Well I'd like to give this gift from @pendrake a makeover.



I might call this The Novumvix or the Nonafix...I'm not a huge fan of either of these names, but I might want to come up with something more fantasy-esque and possibly Latin-esque to name in it.

I'm thinking of seeing if I can get an artist fluent in digital editing to slap this symbol on other things. Hopefully for less than $300 because this is not the level of work of a full illustration, but I will offer some money for it.

Before I pitch it and start haggling price, I need to figure out what to ask for.

Maybe a gold or silver version of this on a chain worn around the neck (though the picture would not have a person in it). Maybe one of these carved in wood. Maybe one of these carved in stone. Depending on how cheap and easy these would be to make depends on how many I want.

I'm open to suggestions, but here are my initial thoughts.

A dragon-esque version. Maybe branded on a scaly hide, wreathed in fire, or possibly scratched on to a surface with a claw. This would be the icon for most/all First Age articles.

An elfy version. I have no idea what an elfy version would look like because Scarterran elves include tree hugging hippies and hypercivilized urbanites and everything in between. This would be the icon for most/all Second Age articles.

A glowing version of the symbol could be a symbol for most/all articles involving magic, metaphysics, or SCIENCE!

I'm not sure what iconography screams generic high fantasy or generic sword and sorcery. But the high fantasy symbol would be the default of most Scarterra articles and the sword and sorcery symbol would be the default of Scarterra Red, which I plan to expand on this year. Presumably the symbol for Scarterra Red should either be on something red or be spattered with blood.

A cracked or shattered symbol would be a good symbol for Void Demons and heretics.

I'm not sure about Fair Folk, which I plan to expand on this year. The Fair Folk are separate from the Nine but they are not actively hostile to the Nine. I've been using this free to use picture for Fae related articles.



The plain version of the symbol will get slapped on my official character sheet, as soon as I figure out how to make one.

I could hypothetically use these for cover images or as icons within an article or both. For instance, if I don't have any better ideas, I can the symbol as the cover image, but if I do have a better cover image, I could use a different cover image on top of the article plus an icon above the sidebar.

For instance, if I made an article about Vladimir the Conqueror's short-lived empire, I could make the header show Vladimir's heraldry, while it would have the Red Age Symbol of the Nine in upper right corner of the article above the sidebar.

 

Is that free or at least cheap? Can it do medieval fantasy? If so, I'll give it a shot as long as I don't have to sail the high seas.

I honestly don't know what elven architecture would look like but I figure dragons would like tall grandiose towers. The way I figure, in the First Age, height and status are tightly linked with the richest and most powerful dragons being both literally and figuratively above the others.

The dragons in ocean were the lowest dragons, but jokes on the royal dragons because the ocean dwelling dragons had a lot fewer casualties in the First Unmaking than the tower dwellers. It'd be like if Great Britain sank into the sea in the 1890 and Australia became the last home of true British culture. No offense to Aussies or Brits intended.

In unrelated news, allow me to use one of @NIGHTBRINGER 's favorite gifs.



My New Years Resolutions that I started in late December are on track. I'm making baby steps towards my fitness goals, but I'm making giant leaps in my writing goals.

I have more followers on Scarterra than ever, and success begets success. I knew if I actually finished my first real Scarterran story it would easier to finish a second. I have an outline ready for another novelette already. I'll probably write it after the next L-O short story contest, but it should be ready before the start of March.

I have a couple vague ideas for story number 3, but I'll worry about narrowing this down when story 2 is done.

I will continue to make baby steps towards turning Scarterra D10 into a viable gaming system for everyone, but I won't rush things (despite WOTC creating a gold rush for new sytems) and start begging gaming Youtubers to adopt it when I really have no influence. Maybe in a couple years, I'll be in a better position to my market my RPG.

RPGs or fictions, I am but one drop in an ocean of independent creators making non-woke, non-ganky alternatives to what the corporate media giants are trying to push on everyone.

 

My first thought was a human lycanthrope that is becoming some kind of were-bat and not a zotz...although that does sound kind of kickass... (44 second mark). My friends and I really like quoting that when someone makes a mistake that turns out to be for the better.

Anyway, I got a professional artist working on kalazotz and camazotz, anyway these are the pictures I asked her to use as the baseline.





I think it's the same species but the second one is clearly less cute and more scary than the first.

I told Diana that I really like the shape of their noses, and kalazotz and camazotz must have those noses but everything else I trust Diana's artistic license to fill in the blanks and decide what combination of human and bat to use and long as camazotz are scary looking and kalazotz are ugly-cute like the majestic pug.



I wanted to set up a dungeon crawl for y main RPG campaign group, so recently they found a fragment of Queen Ameria Ravakas' Atlas of the Known World, and this fragment is a map of a now lost Second Age nation, Moriacla that I made up yesterday, home of the lost tribe of Moriaclar elves.

The name Moriaclar comes from the Mongolian word for "horse" which is pronounced as "mori" because these elves were fierce warriors and skilled horsemen, so I figured I would dip into Mongolian motiffs.

You can read all about them in the link above.

All the Second Age ruins that were in obvious places were already stripped down for anything of value (a lot of Second Age cities had Third Age cities built on top of them), but with their ancient map, the PCs can look for artifacts in nonobvious places. Such as the site of an small trade hub city that used to exist at an intersection of two mighty rivers that have since dried up, so as far as anyone knows, the ruins are "in the middle of nowhere" metaphorically speaking.

And since the ruins are now underground, and the ruins were inhabited by the Moriaclar, you could say that the PCs are entering the "Mines of the Moria", but that is a bit of a stretch.

 

Scarterran Theatre



I'm not going to repost the whole article here (I have manually edit the formatting every time I do that), when you all can click the link above.

Anyway here's something I thought about doing for Worldember but didn't get around to it. Now wrote it in January, and found an adorable lore appropriate picture with a random dog in it. Scarterra has dogs, nothing to says a Scarterran dog cannot take a nap in a Scarterran amphitheater.

I cover that live theatre is a very popular form of entertainment throughout all of Scarterra. This is a general overview of theatre in general.

I will add smaller articles about specific genres of plays as I come up with them. I understand that Tolkien, the fantasy writer GOAT has many fans that do like The Silmarillion or other deep dives into lore and it does not make a good novel or novelette to stuff giant setting expositions into them.

My goal is to organically sneak exposition into my main stories, and one potential strategy to do this is to have characters watching a play since play can present an aspect of Scarterran history or theology in it.

But that's just on the surface, a play can also reveal biases on the part of the performers or audience and you can reveal setting details by who is watching and how they are watching.

If a really simple low budget acting troupe has the undivided attention of a bunch of country folk, it shows that the locals are starved for entertainment and news. If a bunch of Swynfaredian nobles are sipping their expensive drinks cooled by off-winter ice and barely phased by the amazing illusory magic being shown right in front of them, that reveals characterization too.

That said, my first couple story ideas are all wilderness adventures so it will be hard to sneak a play into my stories in the short term.

I imagine Draconic Circular Plays are dry and academic but if you have a really gifted playwright and director could make a really moving story in a somewhat creepy way.

I imagine Maylar plays are highly improvisation with a lot of "fake" combat where the participants fight with blunt swords but are really wailing on each other.

I imagine Mera plays feel like an episode of Bob's Burgers or a Peanut's holiday special.

I don't know if the ancient Greek theaters commonly had actors pretend to be Zeus and Hera, but I have a lot of apocryphal stories for how the Nine interacted with each other and I'm not sure of a better way to introduce them organically than with a play, so I am likely to create a play genre based on that.

I will create new articles of subgenres of theatre as story needs dictate or as my inner muse dictates.

 

My broad goals for Scarterra 2023

1-Reach a million words (almost a gimmie considering I'm 867,000 now) Me reaching a 1,000,000 words on in 2023 is almost as assured as @NIGHTBRINGER reaching tredecuple Slannhood (I had to look up the word tredecuple)

2-Write more fiction/prose. I want to get to at least 50,000 words of prose.

3-Write fewer random articles that do not directly provide material for fiction/prose

4-Design more maps, with interactive pins

5-Figure out if Nightcafe should become another arrow in my quiver

6-As Megamind says "PRESENTATION"

Scarterra is objectively via word count is one of the biggest worlds in all of World Anvil, but relative to most of the popular visited worlds, my articles have a very simplistic text layout.

I don't need to makeover every article (that would make me clinically insane), but I should probably makeover my longer and more important articles, something like this or maybe this.

7-Flesh out Scarnoctis more (though this might conflict with goal 3). Nevermind, six is enough.

 

I have OCD? Also, thankyou for saying my stuff is readable and enjoyable. I assume you implied my stuff was readable and enjoyable.

I don't have a wife or kids. My late parents left me a paid off house and a nice rainy day fund. I don't have enough money that I can choose to never work again, but I have enough money that I no longer have to work a job I hate because "it pays well".

My job is simple enough that I can daydream about Scarterra most of the shift and still be above average compared to my coworkers.

I realized that my other hobbies, especially video games, do not give me the joy and satisfaction I get from writing, so I cut out a lot of that crap from my daily routine. If I can cut down on my video streaming, I can really become more productive.

I don't have to import the formatting exactly, it's just an example of what World Anvil can do. I have about 15 background color/font options.

You'll notice Scarterra, Westhammer, and Warhammer Scale Verse all have a different look, but the biggest thing I want to change in the future is not have all my longer articles be a giant unbroken block of text.

I'm always open to your ideas.

And now to promote Scarterra further

I'm throwing Scarterra's hat into the ring for every 2022 World Anvil that I have a qualifying entry for. On January 21st I won't be able to edit or change any of these until mid March when judging is done.

This is probably the most important one, a Scarterra primer for my world short case. If you have any constructive criticism for it, let me know. My three showcase articles along with it are the Nine, Scaraqua, and elemental ethnicity.

The other categories below, must have been written in 2022. I'm leaning heavily on cannibals and reindeer (but not cannibalistic reindeer, we'll save that for 2023).

My showcase article for best article is skin changer witches.

My show case for "Myths and Legends" is the one time ogres were welcomed.

My showcase for "Pillars of Progress" is a bit of a stretch bone shaping.

My showcase for "Strength and Honor" is the Schnoceg Regiment.

My showcase for "Wondrous Nature" is giant reindeer.

My showcase for "Rise of Nations" is elemental ethnicity in mortals.

My showcase for "Hearts and Minds" is Scarterran merchants.

 

Apparently World Anvil extended the deadline to the 28th and upped their aggressive marketing for this contest.

As someone who has managed literary contests many times, I think this means they haven't got as many entries as they hoped for.